The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Limonium plant, botanically known as Limonium sinense, grown commercially as a cut flower, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Esm Quetzal’.
The new Limonium is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely flowering Limonium cultivars with long and straight flowering stems.
The new Limonium originated from a open-pollination in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador in August, 2000 of a proprietary selection of Limonium sinense identified as Line 52, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Limonium sinense. The cultivar ‘Esm Quetzal’ was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador.
Asexual reproduction of the new Limonium by cuttings in a controlled environment in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador since August, 2001, has shown that the unique features of this new Limonium are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.